Aid workers who were held captive recount horrors, blessings

March 22, 2015

The air is thick and steamy inside the walls of the Afghanistan hospital and
with temperatures of 115 degrees and more burning up the air outside, the smells
of sweat, urine and death hang heavy around the emaciated and hurting children
quietly suffering in the childrens ward.

The air is thick and steamy inside the walls of the Afghanistan hospital and
with temperatures of 115 degrees and more burning up the air outside, the smells
of sweat, urine and death hang heavy around the emaciated and hurting children
quietly suffering in the childrens ward. There is no air conditioning
– no refrigeration for blood transfusions, and the mothers of these children
try desperately to cool their little ones with homemade fans, holding them and
comforting them as best they can.

It is the summer of 1998 and Heather Mercer is experiencing
her first visit to the Middle East country on a short-term mission trip, and
she is horrified by what she sees.

A four-year old girl, skeleton-like from malnourishment since
the beginning of her young life, stares blankly at her. The girls 17-year
old mother picks the frail child up in her arms and lifts her to Heathers
face, her dark, troubled eyes posing the question – isnt there anything
you can do to help my baby? “I remember looking at her and thinking
that this cant be real – this really happens to people?” said
Mercer, as she and Dayna Curry shared with more than 1500 people in a chapel
service and luncheon at Union University how their heart breaks for the Afghan
people.

Curry, 30, and Mercer, now 24, the Americans and Shelter Now
International relief workers who were arrested by the Taliban on charges of
breaking Muslim law by teaching Christianity, were held captive in Afghanistan
and subsequently released in November after Kabul fell to Northern Alliance
and American forces.

Since returning to the States, they are continuing to spread
their message of hope and action, encouraging Christians to not just “take
Gods good, but to lose everything of themselves to take Gods best,”
explained Mercer. Mercer, who ended a college relationship shortly after
that first trip to pursue what she believes is her calling to minister to the
poor, seeking Gods best and not just his good, also met with opposition
from her concerned parents.

“My moms motivation was love and I know that,”
explained Mercer, “so I was faced with a very difficult choice – listen
to my mom or go to Afghanistan.” Go to a country where only 12% have
access to clean water, where the life expectancy is 46 and one out of five women
are widows?

“Thousands of people there are wanting to hear about Jesus,”
Mercer said. “And theres no one to tell them.”

Curry described an experience with one of the Afghans they
met before they were arrested. “Gideon” began showing a great interest
in knowing more about God, but the two young women, together with a fellow missionary,
waited almost four months before showing him the Jesus Film. His response?

“He said that what was showed on that film about Jesus
was more important than anything he had ever heard before,” said Curry,
“and he wanted to know why we had not told him sooner.” She added
that there is an open door for sharing the Gospel to many who want to hear.

Curry, who had spent two years in Uzbekistan after graduating
from college, said that while their prison experience was a difficult one, there
was good in the midst of darkness.

“It had always been hard to minister to the Afghan women
because of the heavy restrictions the Taliban had placed on us,” said Curry.
“But now, here we were in prison with 30 Afghan women, and we had an incredible
opportunity to sing songs of Gods love and to talk with them.”

While Curry admitted that the interrogations by the Taliban
were intense at times, and they were forced to stretch the truth and once even
to lie to protect the family they had witnessed to, she could find one “neat
thing” about the interrogations.

“One Taliban soldier tried to convince me that I should
just convert to Islam,” explained Curry. “I told him I didnt
want to be a Muslim, that I was in love with Jesus.”

He then asked her how Jesus Christ had changed her life, and
she was ultimately able to share with the Muslim why her faith was so important. After
Americas war on terrorism began in full force and the bombings started,
Curry described the fear that she, Mercer and the other women who were arrested
with them felt.

“Bombings are loud – your whole body shakes and vibrates
as you try to sleep,” said Curry. “We were also very afraid that the
Taliban would take revenge on us for the bombings.”

Completely alone and realizing that they were the only foreigners
remaining in the country, hope for a rescue or release looked very dim. By the
end of October, with the war in full swing, Mercer said she reached her lowest
point during her captivity. “I didnt do well as far as the
joy scale went in prison,” admitted Mercer. What amazed her though, and
what she learned, came from the very people she was there to help – the
Afghan women.

“These women had been arrested because they ran away from
husbands who beat them, or they hadnt answered the door with their head
properly covered – and you never heard them complain,” said Mercer.
“And they would dance and sing in prison and I figured out it was because
they knew joy wasnt based on their circumstances – somehow, they
overcame it, even when they didnt have Jesus.”

Mercer recalled stretching out on the floor in her cell and
giving her need to God. “I discovered I was blessed because I was
poor,” said Mercer. “We look for those with potential, but God does
the opposite – he chooses the ones who dont have anything.”

In a prison cell in Afghanistan, Mercer told God “If I
live, I live for you; if I die, I die for you.” In a journal entry shortly
before their release, Mercer penned the words It cost me a lot to come
here, it cost me more to stay. It will cost me everything to go back.

“In this room, each one of you has a destiny and the capacity
to change the world,” Mercer told the students and others assembled. “God
is calling people here to the nations as well as locally and we all have a choice
to make.” Fighting back tears, the young woman begged the crowd.
“Please dont leave here and live for yourself.”

Closing the chapel service, Curry led the audience in a song
that she, Mercer and the other women had sung in prison. “Its
all about you Jesus, and all this is for you. For your glory and your
fame, Its not about me, as if you should do things my way. You alone
are God and I surrender to your ways.” Emily Price, a junior social
work major from Chattanooga, said she felt deeply challenged by the testimony
of the two women.

“I think it was a wake up call for a lot of students –
to not just seek Gods good for our lives, but his best – giving up
what we think we should do, and sacrifice everything for what he has for us
to do,” said Price.

Mercer and Curry do hope to return to the Afghans at some point in the future. “We
hope to take a short summer trip – a goodwill trip – back to Afghanistan
to do a needs assessment for what needs to be done.” (BP)

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Editorial

By Waylon Bailey
The Apostle James prepared the people of his day and all those believers who have followed after to resist the devil and to live for God in a culture that opposes God. He gave amazing advice which fits any people at any time (James 4:7-10).
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